1? December 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00723)
Here is a half-forgotten friend of mine whose husband stood high in Nevada, & whose brother-in-law, Sunderland, was worth half a million when I saw him last. But the husband got lost in the desert & the cuyotés ate him; & presently the sharpers of the stock-board ate the brother-in-law—& behold the widow!1explanatory note
Write her, but don’t tell her I sent you her letter.2explanatory note
Neither the widow nor her husband has been identified. The brother-in-law, Thomas Sunderland (b. 1820 or 1821, d. 1886), a native of Indiana, studied law in Iowa and then practiced in Hannibal, Missouri, before going to California in 1849. After trying his hand at gold mining, he was an attorney in Sacramento, then moved to Virginia City, Nevada Territory, where he established a lucrative law practice and in the early 1860s was in partnership with Clemens’s friend Alexander W. Baldwin. Sunderland continued to practice law in Virginia City through most of the 1870s. Although unsuccessful as a railroad promoter in 1868, he does not seem to have suffered any irreparable losses at the hands of stock “sharpers.” On the contrary, he reportedly made enormous profits, totaling far in excess of “half a million,” from his various Nevada mining interests (anonymous biographical sketch, CU-BANC; L1 , 280 n. 11; “Obituary Notes,” New York Times, 11 Oct 86, 5; Kelly 1863, 285–86; Knight, 300; Angel, 280, 338; Storey, 221, 244).
The letter, which does not survive, may have requested an agency for the book Clemens was writing—known in Nevada to be about his western experiences (28? Sept 70 to Goodmanclick to open link).
Bliss replied on 3 December (CU-MARK):
Friend Clemens,
“Little madam” is a brave one— What a magnet for the women you are— “From the North & the South the East & the West” they come to do homage” Am looking for your brother daily. Have been in a stew—all day looking for a dispatch from you & none have e has come from you— Did my letter reach you—& have you replied?— Am anxious to hear, as I suppose the matter requires prompt action— Do you demur to my argument? Trust to hear from you soon—about it—& know how you feel— Hope you did not think me over sharp—now did you?
Let me hear from you if mine is not recd, telegraph.
Bliss:
————
Not Simply an urgent & uneasy letter of inquiry.
Rec’d Dec. 6/70.
The next letter was the one Bliss was anxiously awaiting, a response to his proposal of 30 November (28 Nov 70 to Bliss, n. 2click to open link).
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L4 , 255–56.
see Mendoza Collection in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.